The present invention relates to retractable tape measures, and in particular to a tape measure which can be used to measure and reproduce the angles and distance between two points on a vertical surface.
A retractable tape measure has an enclosure with a long, flexible tape coiled within the enclosure, thereby providing a very small package for retaining a very long measuring device. Numerous improvements to the tape measure are well known. A spring loading of the spool facilitates rewinding of a tape after its services are no longer needed. A spring steel tape having an arcuate cross section provides a degree of rigidity to the extended tape.
Existing tape measures, however, can do little to plot the relationship of two points on a vertical surface except to determine the distance between them. If both points are spaced from the ceiling or floor, the orientation of the two points may be reconstructed on another wall by measuring the elevation of the points from a floor or ceiling, but the undertaking of such measurements is tedious and the measurements are subject to error caused by uneven floors or ceilings. It would therefore be desirable to provide a tape measure device which can be used to measure the distance and angular orientation of two points on a vertical surface such that the measurement can be reconstructed on another vertical surface without requiring the taking of measurements from a floor or ceiling.
Briefly, the present invention is embodied in tape measure usable for positioning and repositioning an object on a vertical surface comprising a housing having a planar forward surface, a rearward surface spaced from the forward surface, and a cavity having an aperture therein. Side panels connect the forward and rearward surfaces to form the housing and the corners between the side panels and the rear surface define straight lines. A flexible, retractable, coiled tape measure is mounted in the housing for movement about an axis of rotation oriented parallel to the forward surface and the working end of the tape extends through an aperture in the housing. A pin is provided at the distal end of the tape for marking a point on a surface.
The housing has a second pin thereon which is axially moveable from an extended position to a retracted position such that it is useable as a marker when the pin is in the extended position. The device may further include a locking means whereby the coil of tape is locked against rotation when the pin is retracted, thereby locking the linear distance between the two pins.
In accordance with the present invention, the rearward surface of the housing has a 360xc2x0 angle measuring means for measuring an angle at which the housing is oriented with respect to an edge defined by the intersection of a side panel and the forward surface.
The device can be used whenever the distance or the vertical relationship between the two points must be duplicated or recorded. It can be used to set the angle and the distances for mounting an object on a wall, or it can be used to find or set the angle of the surface of a table such as a pool table. It can be used to find an angle under circumstances when existing angle finders are unusable.
By way of example, the device can be used to locate mounting holes for mounting an object having mountings at different vertical levels by positioning the mounting surface vertically in the orientation it is to have when it is mounted to a wall. The pin on the housing is positioned in one mounting and the pin on the distal end of the tape is positioned in the other mounting and the tape is locked against rotation with the pin retracted in the housing. The angular orientation of the two mountings is recorded by the angle measuring device and the distance between the pins is fixed by the length of tape extending from the housing. The angular orientation between the mountings of the object is reversed to locate the angle and distance between mounting holes on a wall for retaining the object.